Morning journal and courier., 1887-07-12

l and less enduring. The first kehrtunnel is 8 l few miles from Amsteg, near little place called Ofaffensprung. It is one of the most perfect on the whole route. It is one thou sand four hundred and eighty-seven metres, just about mile long. You come out al- | most directly over where you went in and | thirty-fve meters-about one hundred feet higher up. When you are in the tunnel you of course experience nothing but the ordina- " tunnel sensation-that is unless you be sufficiently gifted to detect the curve-but when you emerge and look about and see railroad tracks and tunnel entrances all about you, and above you and below you, l for moment or two you can't help being completely bewildered and upset. You have | vague but very strong feeling that all natu- I ra1 laws have been knocked into cooked | hat, and that you are certainly going to ire mediable destruction. If it were not for the reinsurance of the steady motion of the train you would jump out of the window. After a while the sensation becomes strangely de- l lightful In your imagination you trace the | curve you are following; you anticipate the next view, which is all the more charming
 because you have nearly divined it. At place called Wason the road doubles back on l itself for number of miles, with kehr- | tunnel at each end of the double, and with | many other tunnels and giddy bridges be- l tween. At one point the road enters a tun- { nel directly over the exit from another tun- nel of the series and precisely one hundred | and twelve meters-about three hundred and twenty feet--higher up. If you had not ob- | taiped sone control over your head by this time it would be twisted off your body in its | efforts to keep up with the changes.
 It is too bad that Goeschenen was selected
 as the spot for beginning the main tunnel,
 for Goeschenen is nearly thousand feet | lower than the comparative plain of Ander
 matt and Hospenthal and these places so | dear to old travellers are left one side of the
 march of civilization. Besides the finest part of the gorge is above Goeschenen ! Here 1t is that nature begins to strip off her foliage and to show herself in naked gran l deur. How bracing grows the air. How | ponderosity disappears and you step along
 with the Ightness and spring of youth again. Just before you emerge into the
 higher plain and in the widest and grandest
 part of the whole gorge is the Devils bridge.
 Wherever there is particularly desolate and l dreary pass there is sure to be the Devils
 bridge. And it is always F'the" Devils
 bridge, not 'ta'' Devils bridge. Why the
 devil should bother himself with bridges if ' he be possessed of the activities which cer-
 tain professor claims for him is question ! which the theologues and the agnostics may
 settle for themselves. The popular theory
 seems to be, so far as I can get at it, that the
 bridges in question are so "schwin delig'' I that anyone attempting to get over without l the devils assistance will lose his head and | fall. Another notion is that no one but the
 devil could have built them. Still the entire
 matter may better be left to the erudite pro lessor aforesaid.
 Going back take the boat at Flueien. It is
 a change and 8 rest and you can think it all
 over quietly and read the guide book. That
 is if there be no Germans on board. If
 there are then resign yourself to misery. A
 German let loose in Switzerland is 8 nuisance
 of such appalling magnitude that no words of
 mine can convey any idea of it. He eats and
 drinks all over everybody and everything.
 When not eating and drinking he is singing
 or shouting, gesticulating or quoting, and he
 does it all so aggressively; without regard
 for proprieties; conspicuously: "Look at
 me. See how I can enjoy myself" And he
 has cloaks and shawls, and all sorts of awful
 garments which he waves for flags and fops
 in your face. When you pass the Schiller
 stone the only thing to do is to ask the cap-
 tain to lock you in his stateroom till you are
 well by it and the row has waved itself out.
 That is the individual German. When there
 are hordes of them always go by train and
 buy irstclass ticket-and don't go near
 the Rigi. PERIANDER.